Considering a Hydrogen Generator as fuel Suppliment

[jheldatksuedu]

Originally Posted by LakeSuperior

First, you don't have to boil the water it just has to evaporate and then condense on a cooler surface. It's all about relative humidity.

So at night use a directional panel type heat exchanger to radiate heat to the cold sky as your condenser. Allow the now warmer sea water to evaporate in the chamber and condense on the cold sky radiator.

You could get nearly 24 hours of water making per day in some conditions. Cloudy skies, like on the northerly Atlantic crossings, would stop the process.

Without boiling the surface areas would have to be too large to evaporate and condense the amount of water needed to be practical on a boat, air could be bubbled through to help the evaporation and cool water sprayed to help with condensing, all adding complexity of pumps and compressors, but still salts and other buildups would be a problem. It just doesn't sound practical.

[LakeSuperior]

Originally Posted by jheldatksuedu

Without boiling the surface areas would have to be too large to evaporate and condense the amount of water needed to be practical on a boat, air could be bubbled through to help the evaporation and cool water sprayed to help with condensing, all adding complexity of pumps and compressors, but still salts and other buildups would be a problem. It just doesn't sound practical.

I only made the idea up knowing that survival kits often contain a small solar water makers which produce enough water during a day to sustain unfortunate souls. There are a number of books testifying to the utility of these devices.

Consequently, with modern materials, design, and creativity it seems like the passive solar water generator could be revisited.

[Rustbucket]

After many years reading this forum I have now registered just to answer this debate. I've read quite a few posts that start "I'm not an engineer but my dad blah blah blah" . Well when not messing around with my own boats I work as a super yacht engineer (AMSA and MCA) and this hoax has been going around the automotive and marine industries for 40 plus years. And before anyone says do the maths, I did, as a second year electrical apprentice. Now Im just waiting for some to claim they have built a perpetual motion machine! Physics cant be cheated.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by jheldatksuedu

Without boiling the surface areas would have to be too large to evaporate and condense the amount of water needed to be practical on a boat, air could be bubbled through to help the evaporation and cool water sprayed to help with condensing, all adding complexity of pumps and compressors, but still salts and other buildups would be a problem. It just doesn't sound practical.

Actually that is not true you just need to design the solar still correctly to maximize surface area.

http://membrane.ustc.edu.cn/paper/pd...%20sources.pdf
Also there are plans for a solar still plans and specs for diy in the book sailing the farm
http://cruisenews.net/sailfarm.pdf

[newhaul]

HeRe is an interesting article on the possibility of perpetual motion
Physicists believe it's possible to build a perpetual motion machine